Reagan Administration Ag Secretary John Block says a GOP Congress next year would likely mean fewer differences from Democrats on the farm bill, and more on trade and regulations.
Block, who headed USDA from ’81 to ’86 and worked on the ’85 farm bill, suggests party label may not play that big a role in formulating the 2012 farm bill…
“I think we’re going to be faced with some cuts, anyway. It’s just a matter of ‘can we hold our ground.’ And I’m not critical of Chairman Peterson, I think he’s fought a good battle, he’s actually fought against Nancy Pelosi on several issues.”
Still, Block says more Republicans from rural areas, could change the urban balance in the House and improve ag’s voice in the Congress.
But money will continue to be a huge issue, influenced by the debt crisis, the ‘tea party’ movement and other factors—and it will impact the next farm bill…
“I think even for the Democrats, I don’t think they know just where this thing is headed. Nobody does for sure because nobody’s really acknowledged how powerful the movement will be to get control of our spending, and until they do I don’t think they’re going to know what kind of farm bill we’re looking at. I definitely think that the direct payments are in jeopardy, but there’s other things, but we’ll have to wait and see where this takes us.”
Meantime, Block hopes a power-shift in Congress sends a message to the Obama White House that it can’t let EPA just—as he puts it—“run amuck over everybody”…
“If you’ve got a pond out in the field, it’s your pond, but they want to regulate that. If you got a little creek running through your farm, they want to regulate that. It’s just everything, and as you say, the dust, as if they don’t know that there’s going to be some dust when a combine is running through the field harvesting corn.”
Separately, Block sees a new push to ratify languishing trade deals with Columbia, Panama and South Korea. Block points out the President wants to double US exports in five years…
“I’ve said several times, that this administration... they’re talking about trade, doubling trade in five years. But, you’ve got to do something! You can’t just talk about it, and there’s a lot of things you can do, and they haven’t done much.”
Block blames organized labor for the plight of the trade deals, languishing now for more than 2-years.
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